Joe Cocker, R.I.P.

5/20/44 - 12/22/14

My earliest memories of Joe Cocker would be his covers of the Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends", and Leonard Cohen's "Bird On A Wire".  Here's the former:



Cited by Rolling Stone as one of the all-time greatest rock vocalists, I bought -- and still possess -- this 1969 eponymous vinyl album as soon as it hit the store shelves:

Pierce Brown's Playlist

Something to give you a break from incessant holiday music.

Piece Brown, author of the sci-fi trilogy, Red Rising, says that music has always stimulated his writing, and he has put together a playlist of mood-inducing and scene-inspiring songs:

Lili Haydn

First, to get a flavor of Lili Haydn -- who played classical violin with the Los Angeles Philharmonic when she was fifteen, and has achieved much, much more since then -- consider her cover of the Led Zeppelin classic, Kashmir:



Then her remarkable story of recovery in this TEDTalk:



And another TEDTalk appearance:



Need more?



Visit Lili's website, too.

Thanks to brother Dennis for reminding me of this remarkable woman.

(This stuff reminds me that sometime I need to talk about that Funkadelic classic, Maggot Brain!)

Peaky Blinders

I have lately found myself in the grip of Peaky Blinders, a Netflix offering of a Brit TV two-season set of episodes set in post-WW1 gangster-ridden Birmingham and London.  Just finished it, and am eagerly awaiting a forthcoming season three.  Part of what makes Peaky Blinders great for me is the music, mostly from Nick Cave, but also including PJ Harvey, The White Stripes, Tom Waits, The Kill, The Arctic Monkeys, and more.  Did I mention Nick Cave?  Anyway, there are playlists to be found through the simple act of Googling, such as this YouTube playlist which includes ...



Or something like this. Or this (Spotify).

One thing DOES lead to another ...

Today I was wandering around on the Wall Street Journal's site, looking for an article I had read about in my morning's Quartz newsfeed that purportedly suggested that the Web is dying, but as I am not a subscribed WSJ user, I could only read the first paragraph or so. (But I later was able to track down the rebuttal, which bears out my experience in my professional life working in the Web industry.)  So I started looking at other WSJ stories and came upon this one about the origins of Joni Mitchell's "Carey" track on her famous Blue album.  And here it is.  Turns out that Carey [sic] was real and part of her experience in 1970.  Listen up.

Roomful of Teeth

This cutting edge choral group hits NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts recently.

Meshell at KCRW

It's no secret that I am a fervent Meshell Ndegeocello fan. Here is a recent performance at my old hometown station in Santa Monica: