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Pop Rock Nation

Author: Jenny

  • Today would have been Bob Marley’s 70th birthday…

    Today would have been Bob Marley’s 70th birthday…

    Bob Marley was born on February 6th in 1945. Today would have been his 70th birthday…

    And throughout 2015, in honor of his 70th birthday, Bob Marley’s fans are going to have the opportunity to listen to some heretofore unreleased and rare material. Starting February 17th, Tuff Gong International, in partnership with Caroline, will offer the first of the previously unavailable recordings as well as deluxe editions of Marley’s best known works. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to sneak an early listen to the first commemorative release, Bob Marley & The Wailers- Easy Skanking in Boston ’78.

    Bob Marley died May 11, 1981 in Miami, Florida after a bout with metastatic skin cancer that eventually spread to his lungs and brain. He was just 36 years old at the time of his death. Despite the brevity of his life, Bob Marley made an indelible and unquestionable mark on reggae music. His music is still much beloved by generations of people around the world and has influenced and inspired countless creative people. Indeed, Bob Marley, who’s sold more than 20 million records, is considered an “ambassador” of reggae music.

    I didn’t discover Bob Marley & The Wailers until 1990, when I was a college freshman. I had a roommate for one week who liked his music and played it constantly. That roommate and I ended up being totally incompatible, but I did take away a sincere appreciation for Bob Marley and the Wailers from the otherwise unpleasant but mercifully brief experience of living with her. After I moved out of our room, I went out and bought his eponymous greatest hits album, Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers. I’ve enjoyed Bob Marley’s music in the almost 25 years since! I guess I have that failed roommate experience to thank for that, though I feel pretty certain that I would have become a fan anyway. Bob Marley’s music is everywhere and it’s infectious!

    I will take the weekend to give Easy Skanking in Boston ’78 a thorough review from start to finish. In a later post, I’ll offer my thoughts about this exciting new release. Until then, please have a look at this video, which offers more information about this upcoming release in honor of Bob Marley’s 70th birthday.

  • Variety shows are a lost art…

    Variety shows are a lost art…

    Adding a little schlock to my rock today by examining the lost art of variety shows…

    Last week, I got on a serious Olivia Newton John kick. I bought a couple of her 70s era albums and learned a couple of her songs. I reminisced about the days when I adored Olivia in all her fluffy, sweet, squeaky clean glory. Or, at least she was that way until she sang songs like “Physical”, “Tied Up”, and “Soul Kiss”. Remembering an old song she sang about divorce called “Changes”, I took to YouTube to see if I could find it. The album it came from is very hard to find these days. I did end up finding Olivia’s old song. In fact, I found that she’d used it on a variety show she did back in the 70s. Check this out.


    Here’s a video from 1976. Looks like Olivia tried to turn the song into a scripted scene from a variety show. This kind of makes me cringe and laugh at the same time.


    Here’s another 1976 era video featuring Lee Majors… and Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman!

    It’s been a very long time since I last saw an artist like Olivia Newton John host a variety show. Lynda Carter, herself a singer sometimes, also had a variety show back in the day. It’s pretty damn cringeworthy.


    I actually remember when this originally aired in the early 80s.

    The song Lynda is singing is called “You’re Moving Out Today”. It was written by Carole Bayer Sager, Bette Midler, and Bruce Roberts. It was a hit for Sager in 1977 and notable since though Sager has written a lot of songs, this one was the only one that she sang herself.


    Here, she sings “Could It Be Magic” after telling her audience an entertaining anecdote about Mozart.

    This is a song that was made famous by both Barry Manilow and Donna Summer, both of whom I’d rather hear sing it than Lynda Carter. But judging by the comments on YouTube, people were not tuning in to hear the lovely Lynda Carter sing “Could It Be Magic”. I think most of them were hormonally provoked.

    While Lynda and Olivia had the odd musical special on primetime TV, there were other variety shows that were weekly affairs. Of course, I’m thinking about Donny and Marie Osmond, who had a very big hit with their show, Donny & Marie.


    Here’s a clip of Donny and Marie Osmond introducing Roy Clark, who was on his own cornball variety show Hee Haw.

    Roy Clark is kind of near and dear to my heart, since he was born in Meherrin, Virginia, a little town very close to where I went to college. The local hospital even had a plaque in the emergency room dedicated in his honor.


    A little wholesome banjo picking on Hee Haw… I used to watch this show all the time when I was growing up. I’d watch it today, too.

    And even imaginary television families got in on the variety show action. The stars of the 70s sitcom The Brady Bunch were guests on Donny & Marie. The episode was so popular that the powers that were at ABC decided to give them their own show. It was called The Brady Bunch Hour and it was truly a weird creation.


    This show was based on a truly ridiculous premise. Apparently, Mike Brady gave up being an architect to get into show biz.

    The Brady Bunch Hour didn’t last very long, but several big name stars were embarrassed on it, including Tina Turner, who at the time had just divorced ex husband Ike Turner.


    I give her credit for being so game to entertain!

    Sonny and Cher also had a great variety show back in the day. I actually love seeing old episodes of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. They were very entertaining.


    A less country version of “Jackson” as interpreted by Sonny Bono and Cher.

    And here Cher does a Stevie Wonder number with The Osmonds… This clip never fails to crack me up. I love how the electric keyboard comes down from nowhere and Donny pretends to play it.


    Check out the dance moves on this lot… They’re pretty great, except at the end, when they finish off in a weird pose.

    I love watching this shit. At the same time, I can’t imagine how this medium could be recreated for 2015. I doubt it would be very successful. These shows are so schlocky and corny. Oh well, I guess I could always go to Branson, Missouri for an evening of wholesome variety show fun.

  • Sharing SingSnap with friends…

    Sharing SingSnap with friends…

    It’s been awhile sing my last karaoke post. I’ve been sharing SingSnap with friends and now I want to share with you!

    Back when I first started writing on Pop Rock Nation, I wrote about SingSnap.com. SingSnap is an online karaoke site. I joined it when it first started in 2006, then took a several year hiatus. I got active on the site again in 2013, when someone who was reading my private music blog wanted to hear my singing voice. I remembered SingSnap and realized it wouldn’t take much to oblige his request. I quickly got hooked on online karaoke and have been hanging out there ever since.

    Over the past few months, I’ve gotten involved in a private duet thread on SingSnap. This thread is where people who enjoy singing duets gather to find partners. It’s a good place to find people who share your taste in music and like to harmonize. Recently, we had a “challenge” which involved singing duets that met certain pre-determined requirements. The duet thread administrators paired couples up every few days and then that couple would work together to come up with a fresh duet. The first week, we had a “ladies choice” challenge. The women were responsible for choosing a song. I ended up being paired with an old Epinions friend named Andrew and together we sang this… I should mention that I have never met Andrew in person, but we both used to write for Epinions.com and have become “virtual” friends! I’m sure we’d be friends offline, too!

    This is not an easy song to sing, especially if you’re a guy. Andrew did a good job!

    Another challenge involved taking a song that was ordinarily not a duet and turning it into a duet. My partner for this challenge was a guy who loves to sing. I found one of his old recordings that he did fairly well and we turned it into this…

    It never would have occurred to me to turn “Your Wildest Dreams” by The Moody Blues into a duet, but I think it worked pretty well. It was a bit of a challenge to pull this off, but we had fun with the process.

    And sometimes, it’s just fun to learn new songs. This SingSnap user named Bullfrog and I have done a number of duets together and he learned “Somewhere In The Vicinity of the Heart” for our challenge.

    This is a country song featuring Shenandoah and Alison Krauss. It’s not so often that I find guys who can sing this one. My partner had to learn it.

    Other times, it’s just fun to find someone who can really sing and duet with them. Last week, I sang “You Don’t Have To Be A Star” with a SingSnap user from Texas named OBSEQUIOUS. It was a blast!

    I think this guy belongs on a stage…

    Yesterday, I was hanging on one of my favorite message boards and someone started a thread about karaoke. Naturally, I had to pipe up with my experiences with online karaoke and I think I might have gotten a few more folks to try it. I like to sing at live karaoke shows because it’s a lot of fun to have a real time crowd. But SingSnap is a great tool for people who like to sing, for learning music, working on technique, and meeting new people from around the world. It’s also a great place to learn some basics of sound engineering. I also confess that I get a lot of ideas for my music blogging from hanging out on SingSnap, especially on my private blog DungeonOfThePast, which is mostly about songs from the 70s and 80s. I only hope my neighbors don’t mind that I sing all the time. If I’ve inspired you to check out SingSnap, I hope you’ll give it a whirl. You can join for free and sing a limited number of songs. If you like it, you can get a paid membership for less than $100 a year.